Monday, October 18, 2010

I have decide to choose a song to write about .The song i chose was U2 " The Saints are coming". I chose this song because of its message about the U.S government, towards its own people. This song had a political message about the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina. The song took on new meaning in 2005 after New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina and thousands of people were left homeless. The song and video portrayed the feelings of disbelief and dismay at the way the U.S. government had responded to the Katrina tragedy. I find it's very strange how the U.S government is quick to run to the aide of other countries aide but not be quick to help their own people out. I am not saying that we shouldn’t help other countries but when our own countries is in need of help why is it taken us so long, even up to this day for things to be dealt with when it happened five years ago.

Thursday, October 7, 2010

Reading this song gives you alot to think about. In the beginning it was kind of hard for me to figure out who exactly this song is directed to but when started to read the second page then it became clear to me. I knew it was about segregation and blacks wanting equality and it was direct towards white Americans but who exactly. Reading the second page made it clear to me who was being talked about, and that was the segregated states and the white Americans who agreed with its laws.

The audience was everyone I believe. It was to show everyone how tired African American were of living this way, and the things being promised to the blacks but nothing ever come through, like the federal government imposing new laws about segregation and the states not following those laws.

The song does make a powerful argument because they were trying to say that there are too many wrong things going on in this country for to long and there is no progress. Everything is been done at a snails pace, and the “simplest” thing like equality for all mankind is taking years to achieve. There were to many unjust things happening “ school children sitting in jail”, “ hound dogs on my trail” and for what reason. At that time of age what did children do that was so bad for them to be in jail, I know what and that was being black. Hound dogs chasing you when you did nothing wrong.

The emotion I am getting from this song is one of frustration. Tired of the way things in the society is being handled. With Black Americans feeling this way they started to do something about it and the civil right movement was started, and it became very successful because look where we are today, yea there could be a lot more changes but at the same time we came a long way.

Saturday, October 2, 2010

1) In "Singing Civil Rights: The Freedom Song Tradition," Reed identifies a number of 'myths' that he believes are popular misconceptions about the movement. Select at least two of these myths to write about: have you been taught or exposed to the view that Reed sees as 'a myth'? How does Reed's view change your understanding of the movement and why do you think it might be important to challenge that myth?

The two myths that I found interesting was the one that said Martin Luther King Jr. started and led the civil rights movement and that the Civil Rights movement emerged out of no where. I picked these two myths because if they kind of go hand and hand because the myths made it seem like the movement emerged out of no where and was just started by Martin Luther King Jr.

In school I have been taught that Martin Luther King Jr. was the starter and leader of the civil right movement. In school they always made it seem like he was the one who woke up one morning and was like today am going to start a movement for equality for blacks. Not only Reed's view changed my mind but other authors as well as I learned more about the Civil Rights movement later on. It will be important to challenge the myth because there is still that misconception that Martin Luther King Jr. was the leader and the starter of the civil rights movement, and they are still teaching little kids in school this same misconception. I understand he was the face of the Civil Rights movements but at the same time the truth should be told about it.
In school I was never taught that the Civil Rights Movement emerged out of no where, I was taught that after slavery Blacks started to stand up for themselves more, and after years and years of doing this the movement began. There was no need for Reed to change my mind because I knew already that wasn't the truth. Some people probably do think that the movement emerged out of nowhere and I believe those people are very ignorant because if you heard and learned about slavery then their is no way this movement could come out of nowhere. There is a need to challenge this myth that way people learn and gain knowledge that the movement didn’t come out of no where.